Sunday, April 12, 2009

Police use profilers in search for Ontario girl

Monday, April 13, 2009 9:50 AM ETCBC NewsInvestigators have brought in behavioural experts to help in the search for an eight-year-old southwestern Ontario girl who has not been seen since last week.

Victoria (Tori) Stafford was last seen leaving her school on Wednesday afternoon. (Photo provided by Woodstock police)Specialists from the Ontario Provincial Police are now working the case to create a profile of someone who might be involved in Victoria Stafford's disappearance in Woodstock.

Surveillance video showed the Grade 3 student, known to her friends as Tori, walking with an unidentified woman as she left school Wednesday afternoon in the city of 35,000 east of London.Investigators, who have called the woman a "person of interest," are poring through dozens of tips from the public about her identity.

The woman in the video is described by police as between 19 and 25 years old, between 120 and 125 pounds, with straight long black hair in a ponytail. She was wearing a white coat and black jeans.

Police said they have no reason at this time to suspect foul play, but the search for Victoria has continued around the clock with more than 200 volunteers from the community helping police.

Family has 'no answers'The search continued Monday after about 1,000 people joined the girl's relatives for a candlelight vigil in Woodstock on Sunday night.

Stafford's parents, Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford, separated last December. The father, who described the relationship as "an ongoing struggle," said he doesn't believe any of Victoria's relatives are behind her disappearance.

"I have no answers," the missing girl's mother said at the vigil. "Nobody can even begin to imagine what our family is going through."

Surrounded by his family at the vigil, Rodney Stafford thanked the hundreds of people who have helped search for his daughter.

"To me it is a dream, and I wish someone would slap me and wake me up, and preferably it be Tori," her father said.

Anyone with information can call police at (519) 537-2323 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS.